This invention relates to improvements in removable lids for food and drink cups. French fries and other foods which are contained in small bags or cardboard containers are often purchased together with drinks such as milkshakes or carbonated soft drinks, particularly by patrons of "fast-food" or "carry-out" restaurants.
Although bags or boxes are usually provided to contain an entire order for several people, each individual patron must thereafter hold his own individual servings. Particularly when one is walking or is riding in an automobile, this becomes awkward or difficult, since one hand must be used to hold the drink cup, and the bag of french fries, onion rings, etc., must be precariously held between two fingers or between a finger and the drink cup, while the other hand is used to remove the food from the small container. Therefore, a simple, effective means of supporting both a drink cup and a small food container in one hand is needed to facilitate carrying a drink and a food container simultaneously while walking or while riding in an automobile.
Covers for drink cups have been provided by many of the restaurants serving "fast-food", to prevent spillage of drinks. The lids are typically formed of plastic by the use of a vacuum-molding process which produces a circular lid having a generally flat cover member which is attachable to the drink by means of an annular retaining rim and a downwardly extending cylindrical portion which fit snugly over the top of the drink cup. The molding process is normally used to simultaneously produce a plurality of such covers from a single sheet of stiff plastic material. Accordingly, when the formed lids are cut apart and removed from the sheet they leave a matrix of plastic sheet material which is thus wasted. Even in the most economical arrangement of the circular lids on a sheet of plastic stock, the wasted area is significant; thus there is a considerable amount of plastic material, now wasted, which is available for additional use.
After forming and separation, the drink container lids are usually stacked and shipped to the end user, who then separates the lids and individually places them on containers filled with soft drinks, milkshakes, etc. Often the same people who fill and cover the soft drink cups also take orders, receive payment for the food and drinks served, and make change for patrons, and in the process inevitably occasionally touch the bottom or inner side of the drink cup lids, thus making the lids unsanitary.